Lily Johnston worked at Tres last year. The restaurant owes her more than $8,000 in back wages and damages, the Ohio Department of Commerce found after she filed a minimum wage complaint.(Photo: Hasan Karim/Marion Star)

MARION — A taco restaurant that shuttered shortly after opening downtown owes more than $8,000 in back wages and damages to one of its former employees, according to court records.

The Ohio Department of Commerce filed a civil complaint in Marion Municipal Court earlier this month against the corporation under which the restaurant Tres operated, seeking payment of $2,788.80 in back wages and $5,577.60 in damages.

Tres, a taco restaurant and bar, opened on South Main Street in January of last year, but several months later, the restaurant fell into turmoil after the owners said its only investor suddenly pulled out.

At the time, multiple Tres employees and ex-employees told the Star they weren't getting paid for their work.

"We were continuously promised pay, but never received it," former employee Lily Johnston wrote in a minimum wage complaint she filed with the Department of Commerce in August, a copy of which was obtained through a public records request filed by the Star.

The restaurant ultimately closed its doors in July. Rhonda Moor, who owned Tres, did not respond to a message left on her voicemail seeking comment.

In October, the Commerce Department found that the restaurant had violated minimum wage laws and owed Johnston $8,366.40 in back wages and damages.

In her August complaint, Johnston said she wasn't sure exactly how much she was owed, but said she did not receive a paycheck from May 14 to July 10. In addition to bartending and serving, she said, she had managerial duties and worked about 11 hours per day, six days per week.

In her complaint, Johnston said she went to an employees' meeting with the owners in July to discuss the future of the restaurant, but the next time she showed up for work, she said the doors were locked shut.

"That's how I found out we were officially closed," she wrote.

As of March 22, the Commerce Department had only received one other wage complaint against Tres, according to records obtained in the Star's records request. But that case was closed after investigators couldn't reach the ex-employee involved in that case for further information.

Johnston sent investigators a list of former Tres employees who she believed were owed money.

Daniel Douglas, who was a Tres employee, told the Star Wednesday that he still has not been paid wages owed to him for about a month of work. He said he quit around the end of May or beginning of June after last seeing a paycheck around the end of April.

Karalina Noggle, who worked at Tres until late June, estimates she is owed at least $2,500, she told the Star in an interview Wednesday. She said the last paycheck she received was in late April. She estimated she worked 12-hour days for six or seven days per week.

The lost income impacted the employees for months after they left Tres, they said.

Noggle said that she couldn't pay the rent and was forced to leave her rental house. She said she had to move in with someone else outside of Marion until she had the money to move back.

Douglas said that after he was quoted in the Star talking about the unpaid wages, he had trouble getting a job at Marion restaurants.

"I'm working all the way in Carey right now just to get away from the whole situation," he said.

Douglas said he didn't file a complaint with the state partly because he was afraid the owners would file for bankruptcy and he wouldn't receive anything in the end. Noggle said that she filled out paperwork to file a complaint but was waiting to find out what happened with Johnston's complaint before submitting it.